Book Review: Hothouse Flower by Krista and Becca Ritchie

About the Book

Ryke Meadows, meet Daisy Calloway … she’s all grown up.

Twenty-five-year-old Ryke Meadows knows he’s hard to love. With a billion-dollar inheritance, a track-star resume, and an alpha-male personality—he redefines the term likable-asshole. But he’s not living to make friends. Or enemies. He just wants to free climb three of the toughest mountains in Yosemite without drama or interruption.

And then he receives a distressed call from a girl in Paris.

Daisy Calloway is finally eighteen. With her newfound independence, she can say goodbye to her overbearing mother and continue her modeling career. Next stop: Paris. Fashion Week begins with a bang, and Daisy uncovers the ugly reality of the industry. She wants to prove to her family that she can live on her own, but when everything spirals out of control, she turns to Ryke to keep her secrets.

As Daisy struggles to make sense of this new world and her freedom, she pushes the limits and fearlessly rides the edge. Ryke knows there’s deep hurt beneath every impulsive action. He must keep up with Daisy, and if he lets her go, her favorite motto—”live as if you’ll die today”—may just come true.

My Review

I have not read the other books in this series, and while I could gauge from other reviews that reading them really helps build a connection with the characters, I’m not convinced simply reading those first would have helped me enjoy this one. A main focus between love interests Ryke and Daisy is their age difference – Ryke being 25 and Daisy just turned 18. While that might be okay, there was also a lot of chatter of him being attracted to her when she was fifteen years old and essentially just waiting for her to turn legal, which seemed off putting. Add in the behavior amongst Daisy and her sisters and their partners, including Ryke’s half brother, I was not able to get invested in the storyline. Daisy watches her sisters sex tape, Ryke is constantly commenting on the bodies of Daisy’s sisters, everyone can only seem to talk about sex, and I didn’t love the writing style. Ryke saying the f-word every four words as well seemed wildly unnecessary. I’m a little shocked this is such a well-received series because from the first book I attempted, I won’t be reading more.

1.5 stars